This column appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter.

People have strong feelings about their green spaces. That passion is expressed in a litany of recent campaign group names. Save Cathkin Park. Save Our Green Space. Save the Roseburn Path. Save Saint Fittick’s Park. Save Paisley's Green Space.

Last year, when I wrote about Edinburgh’s new tramline consultation, one of the most contentious issues was the use of a piece of urban greenspace, the Roseburn Path, which campaigner Euan Baxter, described as a ‘linear park’.

But Roseburn Path is not a lone story. It feels like it is part of a growing movement, rooted in the appreciation that we are in the midst of a global biodiversity crisis, alongside a growing awareness that time spent in nature is good for human health.   

Every few weeks, it seems someone contacts me with a similar concern. For the most part these campaigners are fighting off housing developments. Sometimes it is energy infrastructure. Increasingly what we see is a battle of one version of green (emphasising carbon emissions), against another (prioritising biodiversity).

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The latest green space battle involves a bowling club at Finnieston, highlighted to me by Community Land Scotland. A plan to flatten the Corunna Bowling Clubhouse on St Vincent Crescent, and replace it with a six-storey block of flats, was approved this week despite over two hundred formal objections.

There was anger around the loss of a historic building, but also an area of green space, in which, the community proposed, it could deliver a community-run garden, food growing areas, wildlife habitats, nature-based play and an inclusive outdoor hub.

Dr David Johnson is a Trustee of Friends of St Vincent Crescent Conservation Area observed, “There is a common theme here around community access to health and leisure. The loss of these places will cause widespread local concern. It is health and leisure facilities and open green spaces that help a population stay healthier.”

Development Officer for CLS, Heather Yearwood acknowledged that Glasgow is "facing real housing pressures", but emphasised that communities must be listened to.

"Glasgow," she also noted, "has a significant number of vacant or underused sites where new housing could be delivered with community backing. It shouldn’t be the case that the easiest route for developers is to target the few green and open spaces communities are fighting to protect.”

These campaigns tell us something about the intensity of feeling around protection of nature, green space access and biodiversity – that people feel so strongly about trees, birds, and the parks that children play they are willing to fight.  

In Paisley, for instance,  a group of determined campaigners calling themselves Save Paisley's Green Space (SPGS)  have been doggedly guarding a veteran tree from developers working to construct 600 homes in the site off Grahamston Road  for the past six weeks.

From dawn to dusk they have attended the trees. One of their arguing points is that this is not just about one veteran tree, as had been stated in the original application, but a small ancient woodland.

Earlier this year, in Invergordon, a two and a half year battle to save an ancient woodland went to judicial review against the Highland Council, and lost.

The campaigners for Save Our Green Space pointed out, “The Council responded that removing trees within ancient woodland does not mean loss of ancient woodland. The Court ruled in favour of the Council. The ruling is deeply concerning, not just for this development, but for what it means for ancient woodland across Scotland.”

The group continue to fight for local green space. A spokesperson said: “The town is about to see huge industrial expansion due to the Inverness & Cromarty Firth Green Freeport. Invergordon is one of the primary locations where industry is about to balloon. It is carrying a disproportionate burden but with no meaningful mitigation or compensatory provision in terms of the loss of its greenspace and the corresponding ecological, recreational and social value and function, and what this means for its residents and when the town is already classified as deprived.” 

Winds of change on Edinburgh trams tap on and tap off (Image: Derek McArthur/ Colin Mearns)

Meanwhile, a long-running battle over St Fittick’s Park, Aberdeen, appears far from over, and, in Carmyle, Glasgow, too, residents have been involved in a long running battle to stop the construction of 400 homes on the greenspace at Cardie Park.

What’s striking is the number of development decisions featuring green space that are being taken to judicial review. Councils are approving developments but communities are pushing back in the Court of Session.

Occasionally they are winning. In 2024, campaigners against a fence around the pitches at Cathkin Park, won their case, primarily around right to roam legislation, and, last year, Save Riverside Park, a group fighting the development of a new training hub for Dundee FC, argued that the development would affect flood defences, and breach environmental rights, and won.

A bowling green, a woodland, a park, a green corridor former railway path. Green space doesn’t come in one single form, but a common theme it reveals is the attachment felt by communities to the non-human life around them, a sense of shared home, of health benefits, and of what’s often called biophilia.

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Yes, we desperately need more homes, and, yes, we absolutely need to fight climate change, but the question increasingly being asked is how to execute these missions without losing nature and community access to it, especially in areas of deprivation.

There is policy in place that acknowledges the need to protect nature. But is it working?  Scotland’s National Planning Framework, NPF4, requires new, major developments to deliver significant biodiversity enhancement, but as yet NatureScot have not developed their bespoke new metric necessary to measure gains in biodiversity.

Meanwhile, it’s not easy to find the right balance over housing. A Scottish housing emergency was declared two years ago, and new home numbers continued to fall. Homes for Scotland has in part blamed NPF4, which it noted “refers to the climate emergency and nature crisis" but "fails to recognise the housing crisis in which we remain embroiled”. 

But that doesn’t mean we should pay lip service to biodiversity, or gloss over the public health value of parks. These green space local warriors are reminders of that.

© Herald Scotland